CraftHER Week 1 Reflections | Laidlaw Students Community

CraftHER is a challenge ran by moral, women-led clothes model SWARA, based by@Asha Scaria Vettoor , specializing in amplifying girls’s voices and rights, alongside studying from and dealing with the craft sector.

In Kochi week 1, we collaborated with Save the Loom, an organisation aiming to protect the hand looming sector. Based in 2018 after floods devastated communities that relied closely upon hand looms for his or her livelihoods, Save the Loom labored to rebuild and restore the broken looms, producing help from throughout India and the globe. Now with a retailer named One Zero Eight that permits clients to purchase trendy handcrafted merchandise, Save the Loom pushes to reinstate dignity and respect for the hand loom trade, which is basically made up of girls artisans. 

Within the first few days of the challenge, we had induction periods. To me, this was very important in gaining an introduction into the craft sector and planning what we needed to get out of the challenge. I discovered it daunting at first, as I used to be wanting to be taught however didn’t have a lot expertise in entrepreneurship or constructing a model and 6 weeks away from residence started to really feel like a extremely very long time. What helped was the help from Asha and Preetha and the remainder of the students, as I had a lot to be taught from everybody and the induction periods allowed me to ask any questions I had. 

Our crew of students! L-R: me, Lily, Ellie, Yoshino, Lucia, Grace

Collaborating with Save the Loom was such an eye-opening, inspiring few days. I used to be extraordinarily grateful to have the ability to go to the clusters of girls artisans, who weave utilizing the repaired hand looms. We had the chance to talk with the weavers and be taught from them the method of weaving, however extra importantly, their tales of how they turned weavers and the way they really feel about their craft. There are such a lot of extra people who work on one piece of clothes than i may have imagined- dyers, weavers, designers. Hand looming just isn’t revered as a craft and the ladies we met noticed their work as solely work, not as a dignified craft, and didn’t want for his or her youngsters to comply with of their footsteps, because the pay is low and the work is tough. What struck me was the ladies’s resilience and openness to share with us and I realized how finest to speak by way of a translator but in addition how physique language, tone of voice and expression are simply as vital and are stunning methods of speaking. I might love society to worth these girls and for the ladies to have delight of their work and themselves. 

A typical hand loom, operated utilizing each a part of the physique.

Save the Loom had requested for our assist with social media to unfold their story to extra individuals. We labored actually laborious to provide you with a listing of suggestions, together with utilizing Instagram tales for extra engagement and utilizing constant themes and hues to be cohesive. I labored on writing an article of our expertise with the organisation, describing the weaving workshops and the way it felt to talk with the ladies artisans. Collaborating with Save the Loom made me actually conscious of how vital organisations similar to this are in amplifying girls’s voices and ensuing girls’s independence, whereas additionally restoring dignity to the craft so the world sees the creativity, magnificence and laborious work that goes into handwoven garments. 

Presenting our suggestions to Save the Loom of their retailer.

I’m so grateful to the ladies artisans and to Save the Loom for my expertise and the chance to talk with and be taught from them.